Pittcon 2021: How to embrace the digital age?

As one of the most influential exhibitions in the global scientific instrument industry, Pittcon has a history of 71 years. At the just concluded 72nd Pittcon Exhibition, this time it came to everyone with a brand new look. It is the first time in Pittcon history that it was conducted in a 100% virtual form. All technical programs, short courses, and exhibitors' booths are virtually presented on the Internet.

COVID-19 epidemic gave rise to the central theme of this Pittcon: embracing the digital age.

This might not be too unfamiliar for instrument manufacturers. Since more than a year ago, they have begun to accelerate digital marketing, because of the pandemic. Each company held various online lectures, live broadcasts, Etc., which was in full swing for quite a while.

In fact, for most attendees who use instruments in the laboratory, it is not a big problem. All kinds of online conferences, online classes, zoom meetings are also very routine.

But for the organizers of Pittcon, it is not an easy task to move such a large-scale exhibitions to completely online. Putting aside other technical challenges aside, it is a headache only to calculate the economic side. You can't see the latest instruments on the spot, can't directly communicate with the manufacturer's sales reps and engineers, and can't communicate face-to-face with new and old friends in the industry, then how willing are the participants to continue to participate? You still have to pay for the registration of 295 USD for this virtual exhibition as well. 

If the attendees' attitudes are not so positive and optimistic, how much can you expect from instrument manufacturers, for whom these attendees are the people they care the most? They have carried out more and more marketing activities that directly involve end-users, making them less and less dependent on industry exhibitions.

The influence brought by the COVID-19 was placed in front. Although Thermofisher, which was absent from the previous session, returned again, some large companies such as Agilent, Waters, Sciex, etc., have chosen not to exhibit. The number of exhibitors has also dropped sharply. The number of participants in technical programs and other activities was not optimistic compared with the previous years.

In terms of visitor experience, although each exhibitor is equipped with a virtual booth with related technical materials that can be downloaded, from what we have learned, the experience of the visit is still far from perfect. The instruments displayed in the virtual booth were mainly in photos, some not even in videos, and it was not very convenient to obtain information. Many online booths were not equipped with enough sales reps and engineers, causing consultation and communication far more complicated than physical booths.

Judging from the popularity of major social media, Pittcon's popularity on Twitter and Instagram was not as good as before. Because there was no physical environment and you can not meet your old and new friends face-to-face, the participants' motivation to take selfies was not very strong. This can be directed seen by the numbers of hashtags.

Michael Dong, my respected friend and a Chinese-American chromatography expert, has also been actively calling on LinkedIn, hoping that some big companies can return to the Pittcon exhibition.

I have participated in different industry conferences/exhibitions such as Pittcon, BCEIA, JASIS, HPLC, CPHI, Etc, since 2005. From a market perspective, Pittcon needs to consider making some changes if it wants to regain more manufacturers' favor, under this special digital transformation. The following are a few of my humble opinions.

• Lower or cancel the registration fee. Manufacturers pursue greater industry exposure for new products and technologies, which means that more attendees, the better. However, the high registration cost has discouraged more people who want to learn about the latest analytical technology and instrument products. These people are the potential customers of manufacturers. In a physical exhibition, charging the registration fee can be reasonable because of space limitations on the exhibition. However, in a virtual online exhibition, the marginal cost of one more participant is almost negligible. Why can't the cost of participating be drastically reduced or even canceled for attendees/visitors?
• Lower the price of short courses. The reason is similar to the previous point. Due to space constraints, physical classrooms can accommodate maximum only up to 20 or 30 people at a time. But in a virtual classroom, one more student's marginal cost can be ignored, as explained earlier. Short courses are pretty attractive to students in the academic field but also practitioners in industries. Even the online technical seminar organized by ChromClass was able to attract hundreds of attendees to participate, and I think Pittcon has the influences to make the short-course attractive to more people. 
• Improve the visitor experience of the instrument booth. VR/AR technologies can be utilized in the exhibition. Combined with artificial intelligence and voice-guided exhibition, scientists and laboratory technicians can directly "see" the instrument, even its internal structure/principle, and "play" with them through gesture or voice. In this regard, LabDog VR (www.labdogvr.com) has already made some attempts. If it can be combined with the exhibition, it may create some special sparks.
• Make exhibition more "international". Some people may be surprised, isn't Pittcon an international industry exhibition? Yes, as far as the exhibiting companies are concerned, yes, they come from all countries globally. However, the vast majority of attendees/visitors are from the United States domestically. After all, the cost of traveling a long distance to participate in an exhibition is too high. Take Pittcon in Chicago in 2020 for example. There were 4591 attendees from the United States, while only 183 were from China, Japan, and South Korea combined, and there were only 134 from Britain, Germany, and France combined. From this perspective, Pittcon is a very "American" exhibition, which resulted from the limitations of physical exhibitions. However, the virtual exhibition on the Internet can eliminate the restraints and dramatically expand the internationality of attendees. This may be one of the most significant opportunities presented by virtual exhibitions, to appeal to a much bigger group of potential attendees and make it more "international".
• Extend the exhibition duration. The physical exhibition can only last for a few days, or at most a week. It is determined by the cost of venue rental and the time limit of participants. But once the exhibition goes virtual, these two restrictions will disappear. Since all the content, including technical seminars and instrument exhibitions, has been moved to online and the cost has already been occurred, why not extend the exhibition's duration so that more people can participate so that the upfront fixed costs could be effectively distributed? 

Through the above methods, it is definitively possible to increase the number of participants significantly. Although the registration fee for a single participant is reduced, the substantial increase in the overall number of participants will make up for this revenue. And more importantly, the rise in the number of attendees and the increase in international influence, coupled with a better experience of virtual exhibition services, will encourage more manufacturers to return to Pittcon and invest more in marketing activities on this virtual exhibition platform. It might help create a virtuous circle.

All in all, this is an era full of changes and uncertainties. Although the industry we work in seems to be a little traditional and conservative, we cannot be left alone. We need to embrace the future with more courage and wisdom, together with Pittcon.